By Karin Mak
In May 2017, the undergraduate consortium of five liberal arts colleges collectively known as the Claremont Colleges (Claremont McKenna College, Harvey Mudd College, Pitzer College, Pomona College, and Scripps College), received a $1.4 million grant to support “EnviroLab Asia,” an initiative aimed to create spaces that generate new knowledge about environmental issues in Asia. Funded by the Henry Luce Foundation’s Luce Initiative on Asian Studies and the Environment (LIASE) Program, EnviroLab Asia encourages humanities and social science faculty to work closely with faculty from the sciences to produce new research and classes on environmental issues in East and Southeast Asia. It embodies a liberal arts approach to learning about Asia and the environment. The cross-disciplinary framework, close collaborations between faculty and students, and experiential learning are hallmarks of the program. EnviroLab Asia is led by Albert L. Park (History, Claremont McKenna College ...

By James Edmonds
Indonesians reach to touch Habib Syech’s hand, drink from his cup, and interact with his presence.
I had already sat for several hours, gently sweating, as thousands of people arrived at an open-air building in Solo, Indonesia. The streets outside were full of pedestrians, cars, motorbikes, buses, and the smell of fried tofu. People pressed into the building; some took seats close to the front, while others went to the second level to rest after a long twelve-hour trek, and some stood, impatiently awaiting the arrival of the man they had come to see.
Unceremoniously, Habib Syech bin Abdul Qodir Assegaf appeared. He began to walk through the crowds of people, heading toward the front of the building. Along the way, Habib Syech passed out small amounts of cash to the children, shook some hands, and slipped through the many others reaching to touch him. He eventually made it to the front of the building and sat down, immediately stoking the incense coals prepared for his arrival. Hab ...

By Bill Tsutsui
Chair, AAS Editorial Board
Like many faculty members these days, I am prone to fault college students (not to mention most of my fellow Americans) for their ever-shorter attention spans. 140 characters is, after all, not long enough for a decent subordinate clause, many cherished phrases of academic jargon, or some lengthy place names in Thailand.
And yet, when I am completely honest with myself, I have to admit that I too become fidgety during 50-minute lectures, have been known to criticize two-hour movies as “just endless,” and tend to shy away from big, thick volumes on bookstore shelves. In our information-saturated lives, there is much to appreciate in the expression of complex ideas in forms that are focused, clear, and concise. Brevity need not mean superficiality, or suggest any lacking of ambition or effort. As the philosopher Blaise Pascal once famously stated, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”
In recent years, the aca ...

Kathleen Burkinshaw
Author of the middle-grades historical fiction book, The Last Cherry Blossom
Your discipline and country (or countries) of interest:
Historical fiction; Japan
How long have you been a member of AAS?
Two months.
Why did you join AAS and why would you recommend AAS to your colleagues?
I want to be a part of a community that values Asian history and culture that I can learn from and contribute to. I visit with many schools to discuss my mother’s Hiroshima experience and The Last Cherry Blossom, and will be sure to mention the valuable information at #AsiaNow.
How did you first become involved in the field of Asian Studies?
I first became involved when my daughter was in 7th grade. Her class was studying World War II and she overheard some kids saying they couldn’t wait to see the “cool mushroom cloud” pictures. This deeply upset her and she asked me to visit her class and talk about the people under those now famous mushroom clouds— ...

By Jeffrey Wasserstrom
As Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, as I prepare to go to the AAS Annual Conference (when our editorial board meets) or AAS-in-ASIA (where I hold “meet-the-editor” sessions), I spend some time thinking about the articles we have published recently and have in the pipeline. I did this before heading to Asia last month on a trip that began with a short stopover in Hong Kong and ended in Seoul at the AAS-in-ASIA meetings that Korea University did so well in hosting.
One thing that was different this time, though, was how often during the trip I saw things that made me think of JAS articles. In five dissimilar places, I was reminded of the following: an article from last year on the Umbrella Movement; two “Asia Beyond the Headlines” commentaries on recent events in South Korea that are coming out in November; and the two lead pieces in a forum on machines in East Asia that appeared in the same August 2016 issue as the essay on Hong Kong. Here’s ...

The Call for Proposals for our 2018 conference in Washington, D.C. is now open! Submit your proposal by Tuesday, August 8 at 5:00pm Eastern time.
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We’re still seeking your summer “vacation” photos. Submit a snapshot of your summer activities and you could win free books from the AAS Publications Shop!
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Congratulations to AAS Member Kai Ostwald (University of British Columbia) and Steven Oliver (Yale-NUS College), who received the Best Paper Award from the American Political Science Association-Southeast Asia Politics Group. They were recognized for their work on “Explaining Elections in Singapore: Party Credibility and Valence Politics.”
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The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies has announced its 2017 grant awards. Congratulations to the following AAS Members who have received funding for their projects.
Dissertation Fellowships in Buddhist Studies
Susanne Ryuyin Kerekes (University of Pennsylvania), “Wat Arun and the Material Cult ...